The Thing in the Grass
by GunesFS
Summary: OneShot. The Slytherins act oddly. Harry, Ron and Hermione follow them to see what they are so excited about. A little missing scene set during Harry's fourth year.


"Iwundawhadazout."  
Hermione glared across the table at Ron, whose mouth was stuffed with toast and scrambled eggs. He swallowed quickly.  
"I wonder what that's about," he repeated, nodding towards the Slytherin House table. Harry turned his head. Pansy Parkinson was talking urgently to Draco Malfoy. She was pulling on his robe and motioning towards the doors of the Great Hall. Malfoy looked irritated and uninterested at first, but when Daphne Greengrass joined Parkinson with agitated gestures, Malfoy frowned and went after the two girls. Pansy glanced back at him and obviously told him to hurry up. Malfoy scowled, but quickened his pace. Blaise Zabini hurried after them and, after a second's hesitation and a mournful look at their breakfast, so did Crabbe and Goyle.  
"That's odd," said Hermione, watching Goyle's bulking form leaving the Great Hall.  
"Want to go and see what's gotten into them?" Ron asked, his eyes gleaming with curiousity.  
Harry and Hermione nodded, and the three quickly went after the Slytherins. They were just in time to see the group leave the castle through the front doors.

"Maybe Hagrid's skrewts have singed Warrington's eyebrows off," Ron suggested hopefully.  
"Or they've recognised Bulstrode as one of their own and adopted her into their happy little skrewt family," laughed Harry.  
"I think that even the skrewts would stay away from Bulstrode as far as possible," said Hermione with a slightly disgusted look on her face.  
Harry and Ron exchanged an amused look.  
"Meow," whispered Ron innocently.  
Hermione scowled. "That was a traumatic experience, Ron! I thought I'd stay that way!"  
"I'm sorry, Hermione," sniggered Ron.  
"Besides, the cat-incident is not why I don't like her. It's because she is an aggressive bully. Just the other day I saw her shoving Orla Quirke."

"Well, Quirke can be really annoying," said Ron.  
Harry chuckled. Yesterday Ron had been trying to catch Fleur Delacour's eye, but according to him this had failed solely because 'that Quirke girl kept distracting Fleur with useless questions'. Harry had pointed out that Fleur had never shown much interest in a certain besotted, red-haired wizard three years younger then herself. Ron had rounded on Harry demanding to know who the git was that was interested in 'his' Fleur.  
"Ron!" exclaimed Hermione, "that's no reason to go around shoving people! Orla's only a first year and at least two heads smaller than Bulstrode!"  
Harry grinned, but he whispered: "Shut it, you two. We're shadowing evil characters that could be up to all sorts of no good."  
They followed the Slytherins across the grounds in the direction of the Quidditch pitch. The group was walking faster now and the trio hurried after them, taking care to stay out of sight.  
"Bulstrode and Davis are waiting for them," whispered Harry, spotting the two witches.

"Watch out! It's lying over there!" Tracey Davis yelled. Millicent Bulstrode pointed to something on the ground a few metres away. The rest of the Slytherins joined them and began to whisper.  
"Nobody touch it," Malfoy said unnecessarily, as nobody made a move towards whatever it was they were looking at. "Does anyone know what it is?"  
The group fell silent.

"Can you see what they're looking at?" Ron whispered from where they were laying between a small cluster of oak trees.  
Harry shook his head and started to creep closer.  
"What are you doing?" hissed Hermione. "They'll see you!"  
"I want to know what they're looking at," answered Harry. "It could be something dangerous. Something to do with Voldemort perhaps."  
"Don't you think that Malfoy would know about it then?" objected Hermione.  
Harry shrugged and proceeded to crawl towards another tree. From there he had a much better view, but he still could not make out what it was that had gotten the Slytherins so excited. Malfoy shrugged off Parkinson's clutches and walked cautiously towards the object. He looked ready to bolt at the first sign of movement.  
"Can you see what it is?" Ron whispered. Harry didn't answer. He carefully pushed himself up onto his knees. He caught a glimpse of something laying in the grass.  
"I can see it..."  
"Well, what is it?" Hermione asked impatiently.  
"I don't know," whispered Harry back. "It's small and flat. I can't see it very well, but it looks familiar."

Malfoy walked around the object, eyeing it warily. When it didn't move, he leaned closer. Then he straightened up.  
"It looks like a box or something," he told the Slytherins. "It has words on it. Most have worn off, but I can read one of them. I don't know what it means, though. Does anyone know what SONY stands for?"  
At those words Harry had to clasp his hand over his mouth to keep himself from laughing out loud. He whipped his head around when he heard a giggle. He shot a warning look at Hermione whose eyes were shining with mirth and whose shoulders shuddered with silent laughter. Ron looked bewildered from one to the other.  
"What?" he asked. "What is it?"  
Harry smiled broadly. "I think it is safe to say that it nothing to do with Voldemort, Ron." Hermione chuckled again and buried her face in her hands.

"Aargh!"  
Harry looked back in time to see Malfoy, who had been prodding the object with his foot, jump back to hide behind a wide-eyed Crabbe.  
"It... It's opening," Zabini said trembling. Parkinson flung herself fearfully against Malfoy, who seemed to be battling an urge to run away. Greengrass fainted and was caught by Goyle, who looked close to fainting himself. Bulstrode, however, took a step forward and rolled up her sleeves. She looked ready to fight and Harry briefly admired her courage. Then he remembered the object Bulstrode was ready to take on and dissolved into silent laughter again, which was only made worse when he saw an ashen-faced Davis trying to pull the bigger witch backwards.  
"Let... Go... Of... Me..." spluttered Bulstrode, trying to get rid of the girl hanging around her neck."Millicent! Don't behave like one of those revolting Gryffindors! Get back here!" shrieked Parkinson.  
"Glad... To..." wheezed Bulstrode. "Can't... Choking..."  
"Tracey, let go of Millicent. Millicent, come here," ordered Malfoy from behind Crabbe. "We'll get Snape to look at this... Thing."

"What are you all doing?"

Harry wiped the tears from his eyes and saw a lanky boy sauntering up to the huddled group of Slytherins. Theodore Nott looked at his housemates and then at the object on the ground. His face brightened.  
"Oh, good," he said, "I see you've found my discman."


End file.
